“He made the mistake of trying to rally public opinion in favor of his now-defunct bid to join the Politburo Standing Committee -- behaving almost like China was the democracy he said it was -- instead of leaving the decision entirely up to the party. And the party always wins.”

an assessment, in Foreign Policy, of the downfall of Bo Xilai, the former Communist Party chief in the southwestern city of Chongqing. Bo was once seen as a favorite for promotion to the top echelon of Chinese political power, but was abruptly removed from his job this week. See TIME’s analysis here.